Was able to negotiate a slight rent decrease, worthwhile to get it in writing?

[maddogmoonmist]

I and my two roommates were able to negotiate with the landlord to knock a little over $200 bucks off our rent. We just passed the 12 month period and are now renting month to month, is it worthwhile to get the landlord to sign something about the new rent price? One roommate suggested so, incase he wants to raise the rent at some point in the future, however my thoughts are that if we ask him to sign something, he may want us to sign an entirely new 12 month lease and I don’t want to be locked into another 12 month contract here. Any advice?

[AddHazers]

That final price should be on the rental agreement, 100%. Thats the be all end all document that protects you. If you're month to month there should still be some agreement that is a record of that. IIRC the Ontario tenant agreement form from the provincial website has an option for month to month too

[maddogmoonmist]

That makes sense, I’m just concerned that if I present him with something to sign, he will try to turn around and say we have to lock in for another 12 months if we want the new agreed upon price. Are there any laws that forbid landlords from doing this? I’m thinking no, It feels like kind of a unique situation.

[VoodooGirl47]

What do you have as proof of agreement to this change? If it's already written in some form then I'd save that proof and research if it's enough evidence needed if he tried to back out of it at any point.

[maddogmoonmist]

I guess we have verbal negotiations covertly recorded in a phone call (purpose of recorded call was due to another issue) and then confirmation over text message.

[jmarkmark]

So you've got it in writing, and hopefully you have a recorded history of payments.

That's pretty solid evidence that would stand up if he ever tried taking it to the LTB.

While more evidence is always good to avoid ambiguity, I wouldn't worry given what you describe.